Many portable devices have been developed in which optical sensors are used to detect variation in blood flow through arteries or blood volume in subcutaneous tissue. Applications include the monitoring of heart rate, glucose level, apnea, respiratory stress, and other physiological conditions. The optical sensors often comprise one or more light sources that illuminate a targeted portion of the human body and one or more associated optical detectors that receive a portion of the optical energy emitted by the light sources.
One area of growing interest in the use of physiological monitors is with respect to personal wellness and/or physical exercise for purposes of fitness training, weight loss, or monitoring general health. Technological advances relating to optical sensors, signal processing, and display devices have made it possible to realize small, light-weight physiological monitors that can be embodied as devices that may be comfortably worn by a user. Such wearable devices may include, for example, wrist watches, bracelets, and arm bands.
The concept of highly targeted marketing on the internet has proven its efficacy. Today the most successful form of internet based advertising is the auction based, pay-per-click model. A newer form of internet target marketing is called behavioral marketing. Recent studies have shown that this model, where people's internet usage is followed and ads are presented to them in unfamiliar contexts, is proving to have significantly higher click through rates than contextual advertising in certain categories (i.e. finance).
A target market is Baby Boomers, ages 35-60. The preferred demographic is male in the majority, type A, in stressful, higher income level occupations and generally competitive. They are finding that they are not handling stress as well as they used to; they have started looking at ways to keep healthier so that they can live longer and better lives. Their wives are urging them to make “lifestyle” changes.
The definition of “lifestyle” is changing. A healthy lifestyle is now defined as attaining a delicate balance between nutrition, diet, physical condition, appearance and well-being. As the population ages, the baby boomer segment focuses on living a more healthy lifestyle. This new focus on lifestyle, along with better information, new product proliferation and channel buy-in is driving growth in the health and wellness market. In a recent Gallup Poll, 52% of those surveyed stated that improving their health and well-being was their top priority when it came to improving their overall health.
The market for health and lifestyle improvement products and services exceeds $220 billion, and is growing exponentially. The market for products that reduce stress and promote mental well-being is estimated at $20 billion annual revenue in the U.S.
In the early days of the Internet, search tools were needed by users to sort through the enormous amount of documents available to find those that were of interest. Search engines were invented to automate the process of sorting and ranking materials by relevance to a user. The search engines evolved, such as disclosed in Cohen, U.S. Pat. No. 6,067,539, which discloses an intelligent information retrieval system that finds matches to request with information, scores the relative merit of the matches, and displays the matches in ranked order. Websites used for searches such as www.yahoo.com, www.askjeeves.com, www.google.com, and others that utilize automated bots that collect information and use a stored index for rapid retrieval. The search engines include typical components (a) finder/locater of sources of information, (b) a source repository for storing the locations of information; (c) a sampler for sampling messages from the located source of information; (d) a matcher for determining a matching score for the retrieved message; and (e) a message repository for storing the retrieved message and the matching score.
Another patent is Rapaport, U.S. Pat. No. 5,890,152 for a Personal Feedback Browser For Obtaining Media Files that uses a personal profile database obtaining media files from the internet. Selected media files are displayed based on user-specified information stored in the personal profile database, which includes, the interests, attitude/aptitude, reading comprehension and tastes of a user.
Another patent, Bair, U.S. Pat. No. 6,003,024, which discloses a system and method for selecting rows from dimensional databases as those databases are expanded with more data associated with time in a manner that creates yet another table that allows searching for data rows that are collected over a time series Temporal query primitive functions may then be applied to the dimension tables in a manner that permits comparison of events and data that changes over time. Of particular interest in this patent is the activity of a person viewing media, typically a files or pages on a website and the sequence of files viewed and actions performed that leads toward a purchase of a product or service.
There is a need to know how one is doing from a health perspective. In some individuals, there is a daily, even hourly, need to know one's health. The prior art has provided some devices to meet this need.
Various devices can be used to collect physiological data from an individual. One such device is a pulse oximetry device. Pulse oximetry is used to determine the oxygen saturation of arterial blood. Pulse oximeter devices typically contain two light emitting diodes: one in the red band of light (660 nanometers) and one in the infrared band of light (940 nanometers). Oxyhemoglobin absorbs infrared light while deoxyhemoglobin absorbs visible red light. Pulse oximeter devices also contain sensors that detect the ratio of red/infrared absorption several hundred times per second. A preferred algorithm for calculating the absorption is derived from the Beer-Lambert Law, which determines the transmitted light from the incident light multiplied by the exponential of the negative of the product of the distance through the medium, the concentration of the solute and the extinction coefficient of the solute.
The major advantages of pulse oximetry devices include the fact that the devices are non-invasive, easy to use, allows for continuous monitoring, permits early detection of desaturation and is relatively inexpensive. The disadvantages of pulse oximetry devices are that it is prone to artifact, it is inaccurate at saturation levels below 70%, and there is a minimal risk of burns in poor perfusion states. Several factors can cause inaccurate readings using pulse oximetry including ambient light, deep skin pigment, excessive motion, fingernail polish, low flow caused by cardiac bypass, hypotension, vasoconstriction, and the like.
Chin et al., U.S. Pat. No. 6,018,673 discloses a pulse oximetry device that is positioned entirely on a user's nail to reduce out of phase motion signals for red and infrared wavelengths for use in a least squares or ratio-of-ratios technique to determine a patient's arterial oxygen saturation.
Smith, U.S. Pat. No. 4,800,495 discloses an apparatus for processing signals containing information concerning the pulse rate and the arterial oxygen saturation of a patient. Smith also discloses maintaining the position of the LEDs and detectors to prevent motion-artifacts from being produced in the signal.
Another method for using a pulse oximeter to measure blood pressure is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,616,613 to Goodman for a ‘Physiological Signal Monitoring System’. The '613 patent discloses processing a pulse oximetry signal in combination with information from a calibrating device to determine a patient's blood pressure.
Chen et al, U.S. Pat. No. 6,599,251 discloses a system and method for monitoring blood pressure by detecting pulse signals at two different locations on a subjects body, preferably on the subject's finger and earlobe. The pulse signals are preferably detected using pulse oximetry devices.
Schulze et al., U.S. Pat. No. 6,556,852, discloses the use of an earpiece having a pulse oximetry device and thermopile to monitor and measure physiological variables of a user.
Malinouskas, U.S. Pat. No. 4,807,630, discloses a method for exposing a patient's extremity, such as a finger, to light of two wavelengths and detecting the absorbance of the extremity at each of the wavelengths.
Jobsis et al., U.S. Pat. No. 4,380,240 discloses an optical probe with a light source and a light detector incorporated into channels within a deformable mounting structure which is adhered to a strap. The light source and the light detector are secured to the patient's body by adhesive tapes and pressure induced by closing the strap around a portion of the body.
Tan et al., U.S. Pat. No. 4,825,879 discloses an optical probe with a T-shaped wrap having a vertical stem and a horizontal cross bar, which is utilized to secure a light source and an optical sensor in optical contact with a finger. A metallic material is utilized to reflect heat back to the patient's body and to provide opacity to interfering ambient light. The sensor is secured to the patient's body using an adhesive or hook and loop material.
Modgil et al., U.S. Pat. No. 6,681,454 discloses a strap that is composed of an elastic material that wraps around the outside of an oximeter probe and is secured to the oximeter probe by attachment mechanisms such as Velcro, which allows for adjustment after initial application without producing excessive stress on the spring hinge of the oximeter probe.
Diab et al., U.S. Pat. No. 6,813,511 discloses a disposable optical probe suited to reduce noise in measurements, which is adhesively secured to a patient's finger, toe, forehead, earlobe or lip.
Diab et al., U.S. Pat. No. 6,678,543 discloses an oximeter sensor system that has a reusable portion and a disposable portion. A method for precalibrating a light sensor of the oximeter sensor system is also disclosed.
Tripp, Jr. et al., U.S. Statutory Invention Registration Number H1039 discloses an intrusion free physiological condition monitor that utilizes pulse oximetry devices.
Hisano et al., U.S. Pat. No. 6,808,473, discloses a headphone-type exercise aid which detects a pulse wave using an optical sensor to provide a user with an optimal exercise intensity.
Mathews, U.S. Pat. No. 5,431,170 (“Mathews”), discloses a pulse responsive device, which has a pulse oximetry device (10) attached to a headband (12) and a separate read-out device (14) that may be attached to a glove and worn on the user's hand. Mathews discloses that the read-out device (14) has a digital display and an analogue display, however, Mathews provides no further detail.
Mault et al, U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2002/0109600 (“Mault”) discloses a smart activity monitor (“SAM”) which is a pedometer based device which includes an electronic clock, a sensor, entry means for recording food consumption and exercise activities and a memory for storing such information. Mault fails to disclose the details of the display other than to mention that the SAM has a time display, an exercise display and a food display, with the exercise and food displays having a bar-graph style. Mault fails to disclose an optical sensor in detail, and only states that photo-plethysmography may be used to determine the heart rate by a sensor provided on the rear of a wrist mounted SAM.
Kopotic et al, U.S. Pat. No. 6,470,199, discloses a sock for positioning an optical probe.
Yasukawa et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,735,800, discloses a wrist-worn device which is intended for limited motion about the user's wrist. Yasukawa discloses an optical sensor that uses a blue LED with a phototransistor in conjunction with an analog to digital converter to provide a digital signal to a data processing circuit.
However, the prior art fails to provide a method or system that allows for real-time physiological data of a user to be utilized to provide the user with advertising or personalized content communications based on the real-time physiological data of a user.
Therefore, a need exists for improved physiological monitoring devices.